Vigilante justice in Gujarat or coming of anarchy?

Incidents of mob rage are becoming common in the city. Such incidents have become so frequent that people have started wondering whether Gujarat is sliding into a state of anarchy where vigilante justice is the norm and not the exception. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are examples of states which have paid a heavy price for loss of faith in the law.

In Ahmedabad city, there have been at least nine incidents recently in which angry mobs ruled the roads, assaulted innocent people, and attacked the police when the cops intervened. Even women were not spared and, in one case, a mentally-challenged man died of injuries inflicting on him by a mob.

In most incidents, the mob was agitated over reports of children being abducted from the city by organised gangs. The police are yet to detect an organised gang at work but they have been slow in recovering children who had gone missing. In many cases, the traceless children have not returned home till now.

In most incidents in which people had taken the law into their own hands, a crowd would collect, corner a suspect and without asking questions or informing the police, assault the victim.

"This is very disturbing. We are trying to control the menace of mob violence," a senior police officer said.

Yet the fact is that the city police have arrested few people for indulging in wanton violence as part of a mob. This has been
encouraging people to take to the roads in large numbers and assault people in punishment for various grievances.

Talking to DNA, deputy commissioner of police, zone 6, Manindar Pawar said the police will take action against all people accused of indulging in mob violence. (Pawar was transferred recently along with 50 other IPS officers across the state.) However, the fact remains that despite police warning, there is no let up in incidents of mob rage in the city.

Police inspector of Vatwa police station, Ram Kumbharvadiya, said that, of late, there is a tendency among people to take the law into their hands if something goes wrong in their area. "They don't bother to inform the police. We have taken a serious note of this and will take strict actions against such people," he said.

City psychologists, however, are particularly worried by this new trend. They don't see it as a temporary phenomenon but rather the beginning of a dangerous trend that is itself an outcome of people's growing anger over perceived official inaction.

The psychologists say that numerous studies have revealed that people tend to behave differently when they are part of a mob and can do things that they would never do when alone.

According to psychologists, in a mob, a person experiences a loss of self-awareness and individual identity. Moreover, an aggressive mob can heighten the emotional state of anger and hostility even in someone who is otherwise not easily aroused to anger.

The mob also provides anonymity which further encourages people to indulge in destructive behaviour. The larger the group or crowd, the more likely it is that there will be a loss of self-awareness and individual responsibility.

Psychotherapist Pratima Bhattacharjee said that mob fury is mainly the expression of repressed anger. "The anger could be the result of the administration's failure to enforce law and order creating a sense of insecurity in the common man," she said.
Since a mob is faceless, it provides anonymity to the ordinary person, said Bhattacharjee. It is easier to attack the police as part of a mob as the chances of getting caught are minimised, she said.

Consultant psychiatrist Mrugesh Vaishnav said the mob is not interested in right or wrong but only in revenge.

"Hisab barabar hona chahiye' is the thought that leads to mob rage," Vaishnav said, adding that it is also a sign that people are losing faith in the law and order machinery.

"Earlier, wrong-doers were punished and law abiding people got justice. However, with the rise in the number of people escaping punishment for their crimes, people are losing faith in the law. People's tolerance levels have come down and frustration has increased. It is these factors that are behind the rise in incidence of mob rage," Vaishnav said.

SL Vaya, director, behavioural science, Gujarat Forensic Science University (GFSU), said that the perception that if someone has been wronged, it is my responsibility to seek justice, is also responsible for mobs taking the law into their own hands.

"Such thinking leads to anger and eventually to mob rage," he said. At the first opportunity, the anger in the individual is converted into the 'collective response' of mob rage.

"People who were till then feeling helpless, suddenly become empowered when they find themselves in a mob and act with fury," Vaishnav said.